Wu expresses artistic inspiration through anime

While listening to her teacher’s lecture, sophomore Winnefer Wu spends her time doodling in her drawing notebook thinking about her future path. Drawing is something she loves to do.

“I was planning on drawing as my career because I feel like I will have more fun drawing as a job than as a hobby,” Wu said.

Wu had a great passion for drawing ever since she was in second grade. Later on, she began buying art supplies when she was in sixth grade. She also loves how Pokemon are drawn and how the characters are animated. It has motivated her artistic journey.

“When I started tracing Pikachu, I felt like I achieved something and loved the sensation of ‘creating’ something with my own hands,” Wu said. “So I traced; then I slowly left from tracing and starting creating my own drawings.”

Wu also got inspiration from other Japanese animations by watching them.

“In the beginning, I got inspired by this anime called Bleach because it was semi-realistic and the details [were] cool,” Wu said. “So, I start[ed] drawing in a [semi-realistic style]. Then the inspiration started fading [away].”

The reason why her inspiration for drawing disappeared was because she stopped watching anime and focused on Korean music. She also explained that one of her friends, junior Angela Lu, who draws digital art, encouraged Wu to try drawing digitally.

“I bought four of Angela’s pins and it was so cute, pretty, and colorful,” Wu said. “I wanted to try digital because I can’t afford many art supplies and digital art [offers] different kinds of materials.”

Soon, Wu got her inspiration and motivation back by watching anime again and one of her friends on Instagram. Additionally, Wu liked her friend’s drawing style of Bishie and Ikemen—Japanese for “pretty boy”—which inspired her to continue drawing.

Wu also posts her drawing on her Instagram and if interested in her artwork, visit her @kurukamii.